Courtesy, Saratoga Springs (2021)
29 businesses won CDBG grants in the first round of small business funding. The second round plans for 15 businesses to win $15,000 each.
The Saratoga Springs City Council last week held a procedural vote that paves the way for a second round of small business Community Development Block Grant funding. The vote allowed the city to accept $250,000 in funding that will be distributed to 15 businesses in Saratoga Springs at $15,000 each.
That covers the first $225,000. The remaining $25,000 covers program delivery costs and administrative costs that the city will incur, said Lindsey Connors, the city’s community development planner.
Reading from the official resolution, the mayor said: “The community development dept will utilize the $250,000 New York State CDBG-CB grant to support the second round of the city’s COVID-19 small business grant program to preserve jobs held by person’s of low income which would otherwise be lost due to the economic impacts of COVID-19.”
Connors said the money may be applied to the business’ operations in many ways so long the business can prove that the spending will retain at least one low- or moderate-income position.
For this program the limit is at the lower end of the spectrum. For the first round that was $33,950 or less, which is also the Section 8 housing limit, Connors said. The rules also allow for simplified income reporting.
“It’ll be similar [in the second round], but it may have shifted,” she said of the income limit.
Connors said her department is working on the application process now. Small businesses will not be able to apply for the program itself until September.
Although all businesses that meet New York State criteria are allowed to apply, those that did not get funding in the first round earlier this year will be given priority.
The first round was a grant directly from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, so the criteria for the second round—which is administered by the state—has a few different restrictions, Connors said.
For instance, the state requirements consider small businesses to have 10 or fewer employees, not the 50 the federal government allows. The maximum gross income of $3.5 million will remain the same, but other restrictions will be spelled out in the application materials.
“They are not super, super restrictive,” but there are changes, she said.
In the first go-round, 29 businesses were awarded grants of either $5,000 or $10,000. Read about the initial round here.